StockNews.com Upgrades Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) to Buy

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on HPE. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 1st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.91.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPE opened at $16.79 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $16.87 and a 200 day moving average of $16.40. The stock has a market cap of $21.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.58, a P/E/G ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.21. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $13.65 and a 12 month high of $20.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 9.12%. The company had revenue of $6.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 302.9% during the 1st quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 4,865,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,511,000 after purchasing an additional 3,658,100 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 47.8% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,574,800 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $152,527,000 after purchasing an additional 3,097,741 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 4th quarter valued at $51,384,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 4th quarter valued at $48,291,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 193.2% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,273,700 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,080,000 after purchasing an additional 2,816,100 shares during the period. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. It operates in six segments: Compute, HPC & AI, Storage, Intelligent Edge, Financial Services, and Corporate Investments and Other.